Saturday, November 9, 2013

Today I want to share with you a piece that is so special to my heart. I shared this post on I Know the plans I Have for You (notice my watermark ;) ), and just couldn't pass up sharing it here. My grandmother passed away 10 years ago. Although I have many things of hers that she left for me, it wasn't until long after her passing that this buffet came into my home.

I have always loved it, but the color {for me} not so much. I love its masculine shape as well as the quality of the piece. It has made a great stand for our TV, but I've had great plans for it. I was justgetting ready to redo it with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (which I just ♥), UNTIL...I found out that I could get Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint only 5 minutes from my house!! Red Posie is THE cutest little vintage furniture shop in old town St. Charles. If your local, you MUST check it out!

My original plan for the buffet was to paint it black and stain the top walnut. But, I have to say that every red piece that I have ever seen in blogland, just jumps out at me. So, I decided to paint it using Tricycle.

It's a little shocking at first sight, right?? I know. Don't be afraid!! You won't regret it.
I'll start from the beginning....

It has a veneer top that's chipped in a few places, but I knew that I would be able to strip it down easily and thought I would just repair the chips. I first stripped the top of the buffet using {spray} Klean-Strip Stripper. It is so easy to use, and so much less messy than the brush on kind, and in my opinion much less stinky (and I had to use it inside). Spray it on, let it sit about 15 minutes, and scrape off. Easy peasy!

What you scrape off REALLY looks disgusting (and is!). Make sure you wear gloves. It will burn your skin pretty quickly.

I didn't take pictures of the staining process, but once the top was stripped, I gave it a good sanding and 2 coats of Minwax dark walnut stain. The chipped parts took the stain so well, that I didn't even need to repair them. I love that it isn't perfect, and the stain really hides the imperfections. Before you paint, you want to fill in any knob or pull holes that you won't be using. Then it's time to paint!

If you aren't familiar with Milk Paint, the first thing you should know, is that it comes in powder form. You just mix it with warm water. The second thing you should know, is that it has a mind of its own as far as how it will adhere to your piece. If you know that you don't want that chippy look, there is a bonding agent that you could mix into the paint. I really love chippy furniture and wanted that for this piece, but like I said before, I'm not fond of the lighter wood. So instead of adding the bonding agent, I first applied a coat of ASCP in Graphite so that any of the milk paint that didn't stick would show a darker layer. (Don't you just love the top??)

I have to admit that I was a little intimidated by mixing the paint, but you can find a great video here. I'm not sure where I read this next tip, but somewhere I read that the red powder was a little hard to mix. You can add a little liquid soap to the mixture to help break it down and using just a little does not affect the way the paint adheres. I found out that it was hard to mix, and added just a drop of Palmolive. Worked great. It still took a lot of mixing and you will still have some lumps but that is ok. Another thing to remember is to CONTINUE TO MIX THROUGHOUT THE PAINTING PROCESS. The powder will settle at the bottom, so you want to make sure that you keep mixing it. Again, I didn't take pictures of this process, because it was late and the lighting just wasn't good. I brushed on 2 coats waiting about an hour between coats. The paint dries pretty quick and I didn't sand in between coats. Once both coats were dry, I used a little sand paper and a sanding block to bring out the darker paint in areas. The paint goes on SO smooth, there really wasn't any brush marks. Along with the paint, I also purchased the Antiquing Wax.

This was my favorite part! I love this wax! It is a soft wax that I applied with a brush pretty much on the entire thing. It really toned down the red and and the color is amazing. You brush (or wipe) it on, wait about 5 minutes and buff to a nice satin sheen. I also used it on the top, but I'm not sure that I would recommend that, only based on the price of the wax. I also added glass knobs. Here is what I ended up with, and I have never been happier with anything that I have redone! Get ready for picture overload:

Did you notice my book pumpkin?? Cute right?

I get SO much use out this little lovely! It stores all of the kids toys, dvd's, books, and any other mess that 2 kids can make when a quick clean up is in need. I'd love to hear what you think! Thanks for stopping by :)

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Hey guys! It has been so long since I've blogged about anything, and I have has SO many changes in my life over the last year, but I will have to update you in a different post. This blog is still new, and I have a TON of stuff to still add to it, and it's a bit under construction, so please forgive me. If you're not already a follower of my other blog, I Know the Plans I Have for You, I'd love for you to check out tons of my other projects! I've been getting back into refinishing furniture full time, so I will be sharing lots of projects to come. I've also opened a new Etsy shop, Funkin Junkin, where you can find this little lovely!. Today I want to share with you one of my new favorite pieces....a 1040's chest of drawers.

I stripped the top and stained it with my go to stain, Minwax Dark Walnut. Mahogany is a very hard wood, so it took 3 or 4 coats to get the color I was going for. Then I mixed together 2 Annie Sloan Chalk paint colors, Antibes Green and Louis Blue, to get a beautiful mint-e-ish green. One coat was all it took. After a little distressing, I applied 2 coats of clear wax, and a coat of dark wax as well as dark wax for the the top.

This one was a bit hard to put a tag on, but I know that it will find a very special home :)
Thanks for stopping by!

Of all of the junk that I have brought home, this is my favorite by far! This one was left over from an estate sale...who would want this one?? This girl right here!!

I fell in love with the claw arms...

Because I knew that it could look like this.....

At the time that I upholstered this chair, I really had no experience, but I wasn't afraid to try. YouTube can teach you anything! It took me just a few days, and the hardest part for me was the piping sewn into the back. You want to make sure that you line up the pattern, which was so frustrating! That part isn't perfect, but was close enough. Here are some pictures of the process...

The legs first needed some attending to. This leg had a huge crack and the leg in the second picture, was missing an entire edge that I had to build back up. Nothing that wood glue and wood filler couldn't fix.

I carefully took off each part in sections, so that I could use the old fabric as the pattern for the new fabric, but also (even more importantly) so that I new which order to put it back together. I started with the seat, and found this old feather pillow used as the "foam". It was pretty nasty! As you can see, I decided to paint the arms and legs before I put any new fabric on.

The webbing on the back had fuzzy molding...GROSS!

This was my little helper, double checking my measurements...

This is what you call Funkin Junkin!!

So after some wood glue, wood filler, Kilz, glossy red paint, new foam, new batting and dacron, new webbing , and new fabric.....this beauty found a new home

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

St. Paddy's Day is one of my kids favorite holidays. We look forward to watching the parade with friends and family and eating green popcorn! Lately, I have really enjoyed designing printables. It is such a cheap way to decorate your house for the changing holidays. The only cost is ink and paper. I began using a matte photo paper, because the colors of the prints are so much more vivid, but really you can use just plain printing paper. I found my photo paper in a pack of about 80 sheets at Walmart, for only about $8.00! So today, I'd love to share my St. Patrick's Day Printables with you today :). I've included St. Paddy's Day Subway Art, green and white chevron LUCKY clover, and a green and white chevron You are One LUCKY Shamrock.Just click on the link to download the free PDF file. I think they turned out great, but I hope you like them! I'd love to see where you use them!

As always, feel free to print these, share them, give them as gifts, or use them on your blog. Just please don't sell them or use them for anything other than personal use, and please link back if you use them on your site. Thanks so much!

I know that it is no longer Valentine's Day, but because I am transferring posts from my other blog, I would still love to share this cute Red and White Chevronprintable I designed with you. Clicking on the picture will take you to the PDF file and you can download this for free!

I used them for chocolate lollipops that I made....YUM YUM! If you download the PDF, you can change the text and use them for anything! They can say "Happy Birthday", "Happy Anniversary", they would even be super cute as 4th of July printables!!

About Me

Hey there, I'm Jill! I live in St. Louis, Mo where I am a stay at home mom of 3 as well as work out of my home refinishing furniture. I'm the author of the blog, I Know the Plans I Have for You, and the owner of Speak Out Loud where I make jewelry. I recently opened up an Etsy shop called Funkin Junkin, where you can find my furniture creations. I have a 10 year old son and 2 daughters, one is 7 and the other is 3. I love all things DIY, and have a huge passion for refinishing furniture. My hopes are to inspire the way that I am in inspired!